Free Website Bad Idea

Free Website = Bad Idea

Most beginners who want to start their own website want to keep the cost low which is understandable.

So you typically Google the term free website and find many companies offering free website hosting services for free.

The thought of having free web hosting and building your site without paying anything is tempting.

Until you get a reality check. Once you sign up to these so-called “free website services”, you slowly start discovering the limitations and many of them turn out to be not free at all.

If you or your friend is thinking about getting a free website, then stop now.

And read these 36 reasons why free websites are almost always a bad idea.

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1. Extremely slow websites

Most free website hosting providers put hundreds of websites sharing the same server. This makes all their websites load at very low speeds. Slow websites create bad user experience and are bad for SEO.

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2. Unprofessional web address

Having a website address like mysmallbusiness.Freewebsite.com does not look professional at all. Visitors to your website and potential customers would find it quite difficult to take your website seriously when you don’t even have a proper domain name.

And when you ask these companies for a custom domain, you usually have to pay a premium – something like $19 – $25 for a domain which normally costs $10.

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3. Trial Service is Not Really Free

Many of these free website services often turn out to be limited trials. After a while, you are asked to pay for it. In most cases, this price is usually way higher than normal WordPress hosting services. If you added a credit card during signup, then they can charge you without giving you any warning.

4. Hidden charges for free website Like any other business, these free website companies need to make money too. Some of them charge their users for additional services like image hosting, email accounts, FTP access, website transfer, etc. These charges are often outrageously high.

5. They can lock down your data

. Many users who start with a free website and then want to move to a paid service, find it impossible to move their website data.

These service providers do not offer any tools to easily migrate your site.

Users end up paying freelancers to manually export their content which can quickly increase your bill.

.6. Irrelevant advertisements on your website

. Most of these free website services are supported by advertisements.

You create content and build your website, but they get paid for the ads.

Often these ads are distracting, intrusive, and look ugly. The worst part is, sometimes your savvy competitors can then pay these free website hosting companies to advertise on your website.